While the terms of the partnership were not disclosed, Gitanjali Group claimed that this portal will offer jewelry from all brands of the Gitanjali group on a single platform, which includes over 500 products from the group’s nine diamond jewellery brands like Asmi, D’damas, Diya, G Divas, Gili, Nakshatra, Parineeta, Sangini and World of Solitaire.

Speaking with Medianama, Deepak Tulsian, Business Head, eGitanjali Ltd stated that the site went live a few weeks back and was officially launched yesterday. He informed that Indiatimes will be handling the entire operations for this site including the web interface, customer support and logistics, while Gitanjali Group will be taking care of the overall merchandising on the website.

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As per the partnership, Tulsian said that Gitanjali group will be getting access to Indiatimes shopping’s technical expertise and customer base while Indiatimes will be receiving branding in offline media platforms.

Tulsian said that the Gitanjali group has previously worked with several eCommerce players like Myntra, eBay and Jabong but the Indiatimes partnership is a strategic one and this store will offer the highest number of products among all its partners and will be exclusively used to promote Gitanjali products.

Homepage: When we checked, we noticed that the site was offering various types of jewelry like Rings (Diamond, Solitaire, Pearl, Silver and Gemstone), Earrings (Gold, Pearl, Gemstone, Hoop, and Diamond Stud), Pendants (Diamond, Gemstone, Solitaire,Pearl and Religious), Necklaces, Bangles, Nose Pins, Watches, Fashion Jewelry, Gold Coins and Artifacts among others.

The site also offers quick access to jewelry brands like Asmi, Gili, Diya, Sangini, and Nakshtra among others, wherein users can browse through jewelry listings from these brands.

Users can also head over to any dedicated jewelry section and sort the listings by pricing or filter the results based on ring type, metal type, pricing, metal purity and brands. We also noticed that each jewelry listing offers a ‘quick view’ mode which offers additional information like ring size, metal purity, gemstone clarity, gender and pricing among others.

Payment Options: We noticed that the site currently offers various payment options including credit cards, debit cards, net banking and mobile payments through paymate.

The site also seems to offer a Cash on Delivery option but is strangely limited for shipments below Rs 10,000. We feel this limit makes the feature a bit redundant since its a jewelry shop and very few items will be available for purchase below Rs 10,000. It’s however worth noting that Subhanker Sarker, COO, Indiatimes.com had told Medianama in September 2012, that they were not offering a COD option in Godrej Shop since the transaction amounts generated in these stores were large.

Gitanjali Shop offers free shipping for all products across India and claims to deliver them in two weeks from the date of purchase, although it notes that the delivery times may vary depending upon the product. The site also noted that it doesn’t offer overseas shipping yet but users can place orders from anywhere in the world. Update: Speaking to Medianama, Tulsian noted that the company has been registering significant traction in its existing e-commerce site Gitanjaligifts.com from NRIs and mentioned that International shipping is currently in the plans and they hope to roll it out in the next six months.

This is the third such online store powered by Indiatimes, after it launched one for Nokia in January 2012 and one for Godrej Appliances in September 2012. Back then, the company had stated that it was working on an online store for a Jewellery brand. What’s worth noting though is that unlike the previous two online stores which were hosted on Indiatimes subdomain, Gitanjali Group has a dedicated domain for itself.

Besides that, there is CaratLane.com which had raised $6 million from Tiger Global last year and had launched a physical Solitaire experience lounge in New Delhi and Hyderabad, Rocket Internet-backed 21Diamonds.in which launched its operations in June 2012 and Berlin-based online fashion jewelry company Juvalia & You which had launched its Indian operations in June 2012. Yebhi.com had also acquired a fashion jewellery eStore Stylishyou.in in May 2012 and had integrated all products available on stylishyou.in within its catalog. As part of the acquisition, Founder Shraddha Dadani had joined Yebhi as its Head of Jewelry.